What does grocery mean?
Grocery denotes food and other consumable goods purchased for household use, including items such as bread, milk, fruit, household supplies, and packaged foods. In everyday use, the plural groceries usually refers to a collection of such items, as in doing the groceries or putting the groceries away, while grocery can function as a singular mass noun for the merchandise as a category. A grocery may also mean the shop where these goods are sold, a use especially familiar in North American English. The term became especially important with the growth of supermarkets, self-service stores, and organized food retailing, although it remains a broad word rather than one restricted to a particular type of shop. Its neutral tone suits both spoken and written language, while more formal contexts often prefer provisions, supplies, or commodities. Grocery is therefore useful when discussing shopping, household consumption, and the business of selling food.
nounFood and other consumable goods sold in a shop, especially for household use. By extension, a grocery denotes a shop or business selling such goods.
- Food and other consumable goods sold for household use.
- A shop or business that sells food and other household goods.
"We bought everything we needed for the week at the grocery."
"The cost of groceries has continued to rise."
"Their neighborhood grocery opens early on Saturday mornings."
Groceries is the standard plural and commonly refers to food and other supplies bought for household use.
"They put the groceries away before making dinner."
Grocery began as a word for wholesale trade before it came to mean the everyday food and supplies on a household shopping list.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does grocery come from?
The word entered Middle English as grosserie, from Anglo-French grosserie, a term associated with wholesale trade and ultimately connected with gros, meaning large, from Latin grossus, meaning thick or coarse. It originally referred to the business or merchandise of a grocer rather than to food alone. Over time, its dominant modern sense became the goods sold in a grocery, while the closely related term grocer continued to denote the person or business selling them.
Related word forms
How grocery is actually used
The word is normally neutral and practical. The compound grocery store is especially common in North American English, while British speakers more often use supermarket or shop for larger food stores.
Easily confused with grocery
A grocery is the goods sold or the shop selling them, whereas a grocer is a person or business that sells groceries.